Liz wanted to use the slow cooker today, and made a ratatouille. The end result wasn't that fabulous -- too "flat" as she called it, I would have gone with "one dimensional". The rest of the meal was really good, the kids loved the rosemary dinner rolls.

The pesto is a test kitchen recipe, and is a basic pesto with walnuts and a touch of maple syrup to offset the walnuts. It was a little odd for the first piece, but by the second you didn't notice -- a tasty re-imagining.

The dessert was something different as well -- chocolate and chestnuts in a pudding. It was placed in a "buche de noel" mold and put in the fridge to set up a bit. The result was easy to cut into individual pieces off the log and had a wonderful flavor and finish...

Liz wanted to use the slow cooker today, and made a ratatouille. The end result wasn't that fabulous -- too "flat" as she called it, I would have gone with "one dimensional". The rest of the meal was really good, the kids loved the rosemary dinner rolls.

The pesto is a test kitchen recipe, and is a basic pesto with walnuts and a touch of maple syrup to offset the walnuts. It was a little odd for the first piece, but by the second you didn't notice -- a tasty re-imagining.

The dessert was something different as well -- chocolate and chestnuts in a pudding. It was placed in a "buche de noel" mold and put in the fridge to set up a bit. The result was easy to cut into individual pieces off the log and had a wonderful flavor and finish...

3. Links to recipes are shown when available, if there's no link, we'll try to cite the book/magazine issue from where it came. If there's no recipe cited, it usually means we made it up... and if there's nothing at all, enjoy the pretty pictures. ;)

4. We don't like ersatz food (i.e. tofu molded into the shape of a turkey for Thanksgiving), but we're funny that way.

5. A brief personal history. We were vegetarian for 7 years, and have been vegan for the last 20 years.